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Education-inspired artwork at the Goodwill Excel Center in Austin, Texas.

In a recent opinion piece in the Austin American-Statesman written by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, he said that public-education spending, including dollars allocated for higher education, accounts for more than half of the state budget.

“When colleges and universities are added, education spending is the biggest item in the state budget — about 52 percent of all state dollars,” Lt. Gov. Patrick wrote. “It is disingenuous to suggest that we are, somehow, holding back funding that we could spend on schools.”